Birds of Prey #17 – Kelly Thompson, Writer; Sami Basri, Artist; Vicente Cifuentes, Inker; Adriano Lucas, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: It’s time for Kelly Thompson to bring the third arc of this series home, and this has probably been the most action-packed story yet. Putting Cassandra Cain behind enemy lines to go undercover to investigate the disappearance of Amazons, she uncovered a horrific conspiracy to turn them into living weapons. But while she was able to raise the alarm and bring in backup, it might be too late – she’s already been subjected to the same twisted treatment as the Amazons, turning her into a hulking mindless assassin unleashed to fight the Birds. Including Barda, who is horrified by what’s become of her beloved Small Bat. This issue does a pretty clever thing by showing us part of the fight from Cass’ perspective, including the way the faces are distorted to make the brainwashed assassins view everyone as their enemies. And a whole bunch of other brainwashed Amazons are joining the fray too…
All the Birds have been brought in to fight – but there are a few exceptions, including Oracle holding down home base like she does best and Sin still benched as the junior member. Sin’s struggles to get the team to treat her as a competent hero in her own right has been a key part of this arc, so it was definitely satisfying to see her bring her skills to the final battle and rope a surprising other ally into the fray as well. We know things a re going to be back to the status quo by the end, and Cass does get saved and make a full recovery, but Kelly Thompson does a great job of capturing the emotional stakes and making the reunion feel well earned at the end of the issue. It doesn’t have quite the big surprises of the first arc, but it delivers some great action scenes and also helps to further the relationship between many team members. The new “J” books are coming on strong, but this remains my favorite DC team book at the moment.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
